Personal injury cases cover a wide range of situations where someone is injured due to another person or company’s negligence. It is crucial to understand the different types of personal injury cases, as many injured people sometimes don’t know if they have a case—and don’t know if they can be compensated for their injuries.
Accidents create more than just physical injuries. They often bring financial strain, emotional stress, and frustrating conversations with insurance companies. Understanding the types of personal injury cases—such as car and 18-wheeler accidents, slip and falls, medical malpractice, and workplace accidents,—can help you determine when it’s appropriate to seek legal support.
Understanding your situation and treating it as a potential personal injury case is the first step in protecting your rights and taking control of your recovery.
When Someone Else’s Negligence Changes Everything
Personal injury law was developed over time for one fundamental reason – to help innocent people be compensated when others act carelessly or recklessly. Every personal injury case revolves around the concept of negligence, which simply means someone failed to act with reasonable care.
Think of negligence like this: every person has a responsibility to avoid harming others, whether accidentally or purposefully. When someone breaks that responsibility and hurts you, the law provides you a path to make things right.
Consider this scenario: You’re walking through a grocery store when you slip on a puddle that’s been there for hours. The store knew about the hazard but chose to ignore it. That’s negligence, and you shouldn’t have to pay the price for the store’s poor decision.
At Perkins & Perkins, we understand the emotional toll these situations create. We see them every day. You trusted that others would act responsibly, and when they didn’t, your entire life shifted. Then you trusted an insurance company to right the wrong that happened to you, and they didn’t. Our job is to restore balance by holding negligent parties, as well as their insurance carriers responsible, and securing the compensation you need to move forward and get your life back on track.
You might be asking yourself: “What makes a strong personal injury case?”. In Texas, you need four key elements: someone owed you a duty of care, they breached that duty that was owed to you, their breach directly caused your injuries, and you suffered real damages as a result.
The 5 Most Common Types of Personal Injury Cases We Handle
Car Accidents – Fighting for Your Recovery After a Collision
Car accidents represent the leading cause of personal injury claims, and for good reason. Tens of Thousands of people are injured in vehicle crashes each year in Texas alone, creating devastating ripple effects for families trying to navigate the waters after a severe injury to themselves or a loved one.
When another driver’s negligence shatters your normal routine, you face an immediate crisis. There are ambulance bills and hospital bills arriving before you even leave the emergency room. Your car was towed and now sits totaled in a tow yard. Going back to work seems like an impossibility, but bills keep piling up.
Here’s a quick scenario: You’re driving home from work when a distracted driver on their cell phone runs a red light and T-bones your vehicle. Within seconds, you’re dealing with broken bones, a concussion, and a vehicle that’s completely destroyed. The other driver ran the red light because he was texting on his phone and was distracted – a choice that cost you months of recovery and thousands in damages.
Not only do we go after the person who was at fault, we fight insurance companies who try to minimize your suffering through aggressive adjusters that do not understand what you are going through. Our experience with vehicle accident cases means we know every tactic these adjusters will try to use to reduce payouts, and we counter each one with documented evidence and aggressive advocacy.
Common causes of car accidents include:
- Distracted driving (texting, eating, phone calls)
- Driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs
- Speeding and reckless driving behavior
- Failure to yield right-of-way
- Traffic conditions
- Poor weather and road conditions
- Unlicensed and untrained drivers
- Inadequate training and supervision by parents of their children, and companies of their employees
Don’t let insurance companies convince you that your injuries—both physical and emotional—aren’t serious enough to matter. Every accident deserves immediate investigation and fair compensation. That’s what we do here at Perkins & Perkins, Trial Attorneys.
Slip and Fall Accidents – When Property Owners Fail to Keep You Safe
Business owners have a legal obligation to maintain safe conditions for customers. When they ignore dangerous situations, innocent people pay the price through serious injuries and unexpected medical expenses.
Slip and fall accidents happen more frequently than most people realize, especially in common locations like grocery stores, restaurants, and office buildings. What may just be a simple tumble can still result in broken bones, torn ligaments, nerve damage, head injuries, and chronic pain that lasts for years.
Consider this scenario: You enter a restaurant during a busy evening rush. An employee spilled cleaning solution near the entrance two hours earlier but never put up warning signs or cleaned the area. You had no way of seeing the cleaning solution. You slip and fall, fracturing your wrist and hitting your head on the floor. The business is at fault because they had notice of the dangerous condition and you had no knowledge of it.
At Perkins & Perkins, we investigate every detail to prove they knew or should have known about the hazard and failed to address it timely.
Common slip and fall hazards include:
- Wet floors without proper warning signs
- Uneven surfaces and damaged flooring
- Poor lighting in stairwells and walkways
- Cluttered aisles and blocked pathways
- Broken handrails and missing safety features
Have you ever wondered why some accidents happen while others don’t? Often, it comes down to whether someone chose to prioritize safety or cut corners to save time and money.
Medical Malpractice – When Healthcare Goes Wrong
We all place tremendous trust in healthcare professionals to provide competent care during our most vulnerable moments. When doctors, nurses, or hospitals fail to meet accepted medical standards, the consequences can be life-altering and life-ending.
Medical malpractice cases require proving that a healthcare provider’s actions fell below the standard of care that other competent professionals would have provided in similar circumstances. This complex legal process demands extensive medical knowledge and expert testimony. In Texas, there are other legal issues surrounding medical malpractices cases that require trusted attorneys by your side.
Notably, one of the most serious pitfalls in Texas medical malpractice cases falls under Chapter 74 of the Texas Civil Practices and Remedies Code which requires the filing of an expert report within 120 days of filing a claim. This report must outline the applicable standard of care, how that standard was allegedly breached, and the causal connection between the breach and the injury. Failure to provide a compliant report will result in dismissal of the case with prejudice. For Texas attorneys, understanding the procedural nuances of Chapter 74 is essential for effectively litigating or defending medical malpractice suits.
Here’s a quick scenario: You undergo routine surgery, but the surgeon operates on the wrong location due to misreading your chart. What should have been a simple procedure now requires additional operations, extended recovery time, and months of physical therapy to correct the mistake.
Our attorneys work with medical experts to review your case thoroughly to determine if the standard of care has been breached. Their insight helps us understand exactly where the healthcare system failed you and what compensation addresses your losses appropriately.
Medical malpractice can involve:
- Misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis of serious conditions such as cancer
- Surgical errors and wrong-site procedures
- Medication mistakes and prescription errors
- Birth injuries affecting mothers and babies
- Anesthesia complications and monitoring failures
In Texas medical malpractice cases, non-economic damages—such as pain and suffering, and emotional distress—are capped by statute under Chapter 74 of the Civil Practice & Remedies Code. Plaintiffs can recover up to $250,000 per defendant healthcare provider, and up to $500,000 total from healthcare institutions (e.g., hospitals) if multiple facilities are involved. However, economic damages—including past and future medical expenses and lost wages—are uncapped. This means even in severe cases involving lifelong suffering, compensation for the emotional damage is often rarely adequate.
Medical professionals carry malpractice insurance specifically because mistakes happen. However, their insurance carriers, like the auto insurance carriers, will not value your injuries and your disruption in your life. You deserve a team of dedicated attorneys fighting by your side.
Truck Accidents – Battling Big Companies for Big Compensation
Commercial truck accidents create devastating consequences due to the massive size difference between trucks and passenger vehicles. When trucking companies prioritize profits over people, innocent drivers and passengers suffer catastrophic injuries.
Truck accident cases involve complex federal regulations, multiple insurance policies, and corporate legal teams determined to minimize liability. The stakes are high because settlements can reach hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars.
Consider this scenario: A truck driver falls asleep at the wheel after driving beyond legal hour limits because his company pressured him to make unrealistic delivery deadlines. His 80,000-pound truck crosses the median and causes a head-on collision with your family’s vehicle. The consequences of such a collision can be devastating and the company would be at fault.
We investigate trucking company practices, driver logs, vehicle maintenance records, driver qualification files, and corporate policies to gather the evidence you need to prove your case against big trucking companies. Our approach targets both individual drivers and the companies that create dangerous conditions on the roadways.
Trucking accidents often involve:
- Driver fatigue from excessive hours
- Improper cargo loading and securing
- Distracted driving
- Mechanical failures due to poor maintenance
- Aggressive driving to meet delivery schedules
- Inadequate training for complex vehicles
Why do trucking companies fight so hard against injury claims? Because they know that accepting responsibility for one accident might expose patterns of negligence across their entire fleet.
Workplace Injuries – Protecting Your Rights When Work Hurts You
Employers and contractors in charge of a job site have a fundamental responsibility to provide a safe working environment. When they cut corners on safety or ignore known hazards, workers suffer injuries that could have been prevented.
Workplace injury cases often extend beyond workers’ compensation benefits, especially when third parties contribute to accidents or employers act with gross negligence that causes a worker’s death. If you are injured in a workplace accident, it is crucial that you understand all your legal options to ensure you receive full compensation for your injuries and time off work.
Here’s a quick scenario: You’re working at an oil and gas refinery when a pipe bursts because a subcontractor used defective equipment. Workers’ compensation covers basic medical bills, but the equipment manufacturer’s negligence and the subcontractor’s failure to properly install or maintain the pipe creates additional legal claims not covered by workers compensation.
We explore every avenue for compensation while protecting your rights. Perkins & Perkins’ comprehensive approach examines third-party liability and potential safety violations that maximize your case.
Common workplace injuries include:
- Falls from heights and scaffolding collapses
- Machinery accidents and equipment failures
- Explosions and blowouts
- Electrocutions
- Inhalation of toxic gasses
- Burns, including chemical burns
- Vehicle accidents while on the job
- Faulty or inadequate personal protective equipment (PPE)
Workers’ compensation provides important benefits, but it rarely covers the full extent of your losses.
How We Fight for Maximum Compensation in Your Case
If you are injured due to someone else’s negligence, its simple: negligent parties should pay for the harm they caused you. We fight for you to establish legal responsibility and help you receive fair compensation for your losses.
To prove a successful personal injury claim, we are required to prove someone owed you a duty of care, someone breached that duty through negligent actions, someone caused your injuries, and you suffered damages as a result.
The damages you suffered may include medical expenses, ongoing treatment costs, lost wages, reduced earning capacity, pain and suffering, mental anguish, emotional distress, disfigurement, and other losses that affect your quality of life. Every day injured people receive low settlement offers when they negotiate without experienced legal representation.
Our firm will document every aspect of how the accident changed your life. Insurance companies will want to settle quickly for minimal amounts, but we will build you a compelling case that demonstrate the true scope of your losses and future needs.
Get the Legal Help You Deserve – Start with a Free Consultation
Statute of limitations restrict how long you have to file personal injury claims. In Texas, waiting too long can permanently eliminate your right to seek compensation, regardless of how strong your case might be.
We offer free consultations because we believe every injury victim in Texas deserves to understand their legal options without financial pressure. During your consultation, we’ll evaluate your case, explain your rights, and outline a clear path forward.
Don’t let insurance companies convince you to accept quick settlements before understanding the full value of your claim. Our track record speaks for itself – we’ve recovered millions in compensation for clients across Texas who didn’t know the true value of their cases.
Contact us today to schedule your free consultation. Call us now or fill out our online form to get started. Your recovery begins with a single phone call.
